New Music – Page 240 – Queen City Sounds and Art

Parts Evokes a Yearning For a Life of Meaningful Experiences and Choices on its New Single “Empty Days”

Parts1_crop — Parts, photo courtesy the artists

The angular guitar line and rhythm of “Empty Days” by Parts when coupled with the psychedelic synth swells is a bit reminiscent of Radiohead circa “Paranoid Android” but with a funky soulfulness that serves to give the song at times a softer touch. The contrasts help to highlight the song’s lyrics about the modern era in which increasing amounts of our time is demanded in order to survive and even if you’re one of the lucky few to enjoy the benefits of being affluent, you, like everyone else, is bombarded with a lot of useless information competing for your attention and real estate in your psyche. Over half a century ago the Rolling Stones sang something about “a lot of useless information trying to fire [your] imagination” and that’s nothing compared to now when your data is mined and fed back to you through an algorithmic analysis of preferences intended to infiltrate your life and and lifestyle by making what the company offers what it is you desire, streamlining your experience in line with what makes profits easiest and most “cost effective.” A lot of the world is processed for you mediated through your phone screen or elsewhere and yet everyone deep down knows this is a stunted and inauthentic existence even if it seems normal and inevitable now. People crave meaning in their lives much more so than the empty calorie experiences and entertainment that is very often offered. This song bemoans a steady diet of mediocrity and horror in order to distract us from turning over the order of things that perpetuates that cycle. Listen to “Empty Days” on Soundcloud and follow Parts at the links below.

open.spotify.com/artist/37JJViFsaClJdlhMpyemDJ
youtube.com/channel/UCfZKBuKgW9dxQV4mMsuhZzg
twitter.com/PartsTLVband
facebook.com/partsband00
instagram.com/parts.party

The Processional and Minimal “Address” by La Loba is Imbued With the Spirit of Personal Mysticism

LaLoba3_sm — La Loba, photo courtesy the artist

The harmonium drone of La Loba’s “Address” is reminiscent of the bag pipes and hypnotic compound time structure suits the mantra-like vocals. The slight flutter changing between notes sets a processional pace as the words speak of being lost and wanting to manifest dreams and the finding the hard path there in the desert but fearing to leave the comfort of a confining social background that nevertheless gives one’s life definition and a meaning maybe you’ve outgrown. Minimal in its compositional elements (voice and harmonium), it’s impossible to not think of Nico’s solo albums, in particular her 1970 album Desertshore with its air of spiritual wanderlust and a search for meaning. Of course one might think also of Lisa Gerrard’s “Persian Love Song” from her first solo album outside of Dead Can Dance, 1995’s The Mirror Pool. Except that “Address” is more stripped down than either but there is a certain energy to the song that suggests extending to the transcendent. Listen to “Address” on Soundcloud and follow the band at the link provided.

RALPH Deftly Brushes Off a Creepy Ex in the Exuberant Dance Pop Song “No Muss No Fuss”

RALPH1_crop — RALPH, photo courtesy the artist

“I want no muss, no fuss, no us,” is the to the point tagline of the chorus of RALPH’s new single “No Muss No Fuss” about an ex who not only can’t let go but who goes out of his way to be in her life in every way he can imagine. You know, going to where he knows she’ll be whether it’s the neighborhood coffee shop or social gatherings where he doesn’t belong or where he wouldn’t otherwise go as if that reminder would ever make her reconsider being involved again. Why anyone thinks this is effective or viable is a mystery, like wishful thinking in the fact of all information to the contrary. But RALPH makes the best of it with a humorous dismissal of this pathetic, childish behavior by spelling out in no uncertain terms that it’s not going to happen, there are no feelings to rekindle and that she has long since moved on. The buoyant melody and upbeat rhythm and inventive, unconventional dynamics and confident tone make the latter obvious. Watch the song’s video below, directed by Gemma Warren, as RALPH dances away the petty annoyance in style, and follow RALPH at her Soundcloud account.

soundcloud.com/songsbyralph

BAUM Mourns the Loss of a Friend and the Impossible Reconciliation on “Bad Kid”

Baum1_crop — Baum, photo courtesy the artist

The tonal bend and stretch in the opening moments of BAUM’s “Bad Kid” let you know you’re in for something a little different. The song is a complex portrait of a woman looking back on a friendship that had more than a few bumps in the road and coming upon her in the wake of the death of that friend. BAUM achingly tells us of a troubled youth who took advantage of a friend who may have had some mental health issues in pursuit of the desires that drove her beyond her will. And yet it’s clear that there was some kind of moving past the selfish act but now the narrator of the story feels the intense guilt of that terrible moment years ago and lamenting with her entire being not trying to make amends for that act until it was too late. The influence of this unnamed person is evident from the very first words of the song with maybe the friend representing some ideal or ethos and passing that passion or way of being forward: “I got my fire from you, burned me when you passed it down, never easy carrying somebody’s flame around, ooh, it’s from you.” Many people talk about how they wish they had reached out to a loved one or a friend for years and make posts to social media about how you should hug your loved ones and hold them tight in the wake of the death of a friend of family member. “Bad Kid” comes out of that sort of upswell of feeling but in personalizing it with poignant details the song is devastating. Listen to “Bad Kid” on Soundcloud and follow BAUM at the links below.

soundcloud.com/sheisbaum
open.spotify.com/artist/4XUgU65QR7O1xlzuRRCcUQ
twitter.com/sheisbaum
facebook.com/sheisbaum
instagram.com/sheisbaum

Echodrone’s “Winter” Sounds Like the Cycle and Aftermath of a 500-Year Blizzard

Echodrone3_lg — Echodrone, image courtesy the band

Echodrone’s colossal “Winter” eases in with sounds like the albatross fleeing a coming storm that is bleeding over the horizon like a dark outline. And with a minimal guitar line like the early flutter of snow before the blizzard the song comes rolling in gradually but with great force. The percussion hits with a staggered cadence as the musical storm builds in pitch, tone and intensity. A soaring keyboard melody keeps the pace and conveys an end of the world sense like the category five hurricane of snowfall. But the momentum drops out six minutes in and lonely guitar and a cymbal figure trace the sunrise and the calm of the blanketed/blighted landscape and suggesting a stark beauty filled with hope that worst is over. Triumphant passages of sound replace that calm and collapse into cacophony like massive structures of ice and snow cracking and crumbling in the heat of the late winter sun, yielding streams and the signs of the first new growth of the coming season. At this point vocals enter the song over twelve minutes in striking chords paradoxical chords of joy and melancholy. The song ends with its most experimental soundscaping in minimal synth figures and echoing guitar sounds bouncing back in reverse. If the song isn’t supposed to be an expression of the cycle of winter or a cycle of life it surely takes you through some changes without sacrificing a respectable level of sustained thematic continuity without ever getting stuck in a rut. The sing is part of the the group’s new full-length Everything Starts out September 10, 2019 on Dome A Records. Listen to “Winter” on Soundcloud and follow Echodrone at the links below.

echodrone.com
soundcloud.com/echodroneband
domearecords.bandcamp.com
twitter.com/Echodrone
facebook.com/echodrone
instagram.com/echodroneofficial

Layers of Ethereal Melody and a Classical Sensibility Give Revolt’s Hard Alternative Track “Shatterhand” a Refreshing Dimensionality

Revolt1_lg — Revolt, photo courtesy the artists

The members of Norwegian rock band Revolt are all teenagers but their new single “Shatterhand” (presumably part of their forthcoming debut album The Beautiful Decay) and its sophisticated dynamics and builds sound like a band that is confident in their abilities born out of experience and exploration of the kind of music they want to make. There is a focus and drive to the song that contrasts well with the more introspective passages that seems more impactful than if the band had just decided to stick with a relentless flow of sound. Guitars are able to soar along with the vocals even as the group heads forward to the song’s ethereal denouement. The symphonic elements throughout are a nice touch and the mix of hard rock and classical and atmospheric flourishes gives the song a dimensionality that isn’t common in music in this style or one adjacent. Listen to “Shatterhand” on Soundcloud and follow Revolt at the links below.

open.spotify.com/artist/657E9x6O15qDbZxf8VqLTG
facebook.com/RevoltVBand

At the Intersection of Atonality and Urgency, Christopher Tignor’s “I, Autocorrelations” is a Modern Classical Analog of the Multiple Perils Facing the World

ChristopherTignor1_crop — Christopher Tignor, photo courtesy the artist

“I, Autocorrelations” is Christopher Tignor’s lead single from his forthcoming album A Light Below due out on October 11 on Western Vinyl. The album is a record wherein the sounds are done by “prepared violin and percussion.” While that may sound very academic the effect of the piece is deeply emotional. Tignor’s violin bowing and plucking over a drone and hitting a broad range of the scale suggestions an anxiety, urgency and tension that strikes one when coming to a sudden realization of a truth that must be acted upon immediately. Hitting the occasional atonal figure adds greatly to the sense that formalities must be dispensed with to address the issue at hand before some impending menace comes to fruition. The percussion accents, perhaps bass drums and xylophone, provide the stability and calm to give the song a grounding when it masterfully threatens to go off the rails. Listen to “I, Autocorrelations” on Soundcloud and follow Christopher Tignor at the links provided.

open.spotify.com/artist/4fHCEeChre5Ajrkk2ktKdG
twitter.com/tignortronics
facebook.com/ChristopherTignor
instagram.com/tignortronics

Maude Latour’s “Ride My Bike” is a Dynamic Pop Call to Action to Make the World We’d Like to See Without Neglecting Our Humanity

MaudeLatour2_crop — Maude Latour, photo courtesy the artist

Maude Latour sets up a song with nuanced thinking and complicated emotions from the very beginning of “Ride My Bike.” Latour almost offhandedly says “The world’s on fire so I ride my bike” in a way that may get misinterpreted by some as having a casual indifference to the disaster but really the lyric is an acknowledgment of wanting to do something but knowing that maybe right now you can’t do anything directly so best to be in motion to get your mind thinking and not get stuck in spiral of despair and get neutralized from being an effective person in your world that demands so much of us these days that we have to prioritize even as we adapt to the new horrible normal. The unconventional melody and Latour’s unconventional vocal cadence draws you in to a song that is part R&B and part experimental pop as it alternates between introspective moodiness and upbeat energetic choruses. Latour uses the idea of getting a runner’s high as a vehicle for talking about using a healthy outlet to avoid what she realizes at the young age of 19 are foolish ways to undermine yourself like late nights and dating bad guys, especially when there’s so much at stake right now as you balance living the life you want and one where you’re not a passive actor in a world that is running headlong into ecological and political doomsday if we don’t act now without getting constantly distracted by everyday nonsense and yet we can’t forget our humanity and care for own own fragility and that of others. In many ways it sounds like a love song for the world Latour would like to see happen. Listen to “Ride My Bike” on Soundcloud.

A Sprawling Epic of Soundscapes and Dynamics, Carlo Peluso’s “Earthshape” is Like an Homage to Classic Progressive Rock and Jazz Fusion

Normally older tracks don’t get written up through Queen City Sounds and Art but when Carlo Peluso’s “Earthshape” from his 2015 EP EarthShape was submitted to us through Submithub, the rare exception was made. It sounds like Peluso listened to “And You And I” by Yes several dozen times and absorbed the tonality and structure of the song and its exquisite sonic details. Then wrote a kind of homage to how that song made him feel but did it in his own musical vocabulary that includes un-processed piano alongside electronics and synth and across the song’s 18 minutes 36 seconds takes us through the sonic equivalent of jazz ballrooms that Emerson, Lake & Palmer would have hung out with Mahavishnu Orchestra circa the writing of Tarkus. The intertwining arpeggios between Peluso on Keyboards, Giovanni Peluso on guitars and Marco Fabricci on bass is impressive and inventive, expressive and diverse across the entire song as though the trio is trying to evoke what it might be like to cross time zones, landscapes and cultures on a truly global world tour. Certainly the song is ambitious in its composition and perhaps aspirational in terms of where the band would want to take their music. Its scope is panoramic and while the chops of the players is evident like the work of many of the progressive rock bands of the 60s and 70s the aim is to express creative ideas using a broad palette of sound and dynamics in the maximalist way that has kept a good slice of that music interesting decades later. Follow Carlo Peluso at the links below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dcYr8SsBLc
https://play.spotify.com/album/3DSj1fRPDinlxDjSZGiuyI
https://www.facebook.com/carlopelusomusic
https://carlopeluso.bandcamp.com

The Brash Introspection of The Beekeepers’ “Endless Spiral Notebooks” Has an Undeniably Self-Effacing Charm

TheBeekeepers1_crop — The Beekeepers, photo courtesy the artists

The Beekeepers’ “Endless Spiral Notebooks” is an homage to the numerous journals and diaries a certain kind of person uses to work out personal angst and flesh out ideas all of which can be later consulted for creative inspiration or a reminder how ridiculous one can be charting your personal development in such an informal manner. Maybe you’ll read something or see a doodle that will make you cringe but the possible level of self accountability can be high. Musically the song is a lo-fi jangle that fans of New Zealand bands like The Clean and The Bats or American groups like Tyvek may find to their liking. It’s raw, off-the-cuff but not short on an undeniable charm informed by a paradoxically brash introspection. Listen to the song on Bandcamp where you can also follow the band’s happenings.

Song Demos by The Beekeepers

the-beekeepers.bandcamp.com